was chief of staff for are then senator dan quayle during his debate against senator lloyd benson. while he probably lost the debate the bush quail ticket won the 1988 election in a landslide. how important then are vice presidential debates, bill? welcome. what do you think? >> i think this vice presidential debate is important because mitt romney won so big last week on wednesday night. the question for paul ryan is can he protect in a way mitt romney's achievement and can he consolidate it and after the romney debate after the ryan debate in a sense can it confirm what romney did. i think it is a very important moment. vice president biden will try very hard to retrospecktively discredit mitt romney's victory. he will say maybe obama was off his game a little. he won't say that but implication. all lies, deception, flip flopping, big mirage that you saw for 90 minutes. biden is going to come incredibly hard at romney. ryan has to defend romney and in effect consolidate romney's gains. like coming in in the second leg of a relay race. your team is ahead and you got to hold the le